There is known a blower type chemical diffusing apparatus as disclosed in JP 2002-291392 A.
Such a blower type chemical diffusing apparatus is provided in its apparatus body with an air blower, a chemical receptacle and a power supply container wherein the air blower includes a fan and a motor, the chemical receptacle is stored with a volatile chemical and the power supply container contains a battery.
And, the motor is driven to rotate the fan, which causes air to flow through the chemical receptacle, which in turn volatilizes volatile chemical and diffuses it into an atmosphere.
The battery used in the conventional blower type chemical diffusing apparatus mentioned above is one or more of cells such as alkaline, manganese and lithium cells. Such cells have their limits in the period of service and when the service period is expired they are replaced with unused ones while being disposed of as refuse.
For this reason, they are economically disadvantageous and also entail the problem of refuse disposal.
As a result of zealous investigations on cells for the air blower in the blower type chemical diffusing apparatus mentioned above, the present inventors have noted that in recent years a small sized fuel cell is being developed using hydrogen as a fuel to be chemically reacted with oxygen in air to generate electric power. They have then found that using such a small sized fuel cell for the power supply of the air blower may realize a blower type chemical diffusing apparatus which is operable over an extended period of time while permitting the power supply therein to be recurrently used upon replenishment with fuel and which therefore is free of the refuse disposal problem hitherto encountered.
However, such a fuel cell when hydrogen is reacted with oxygen in air produces a water product which need be disposed of.
Thus, the conventional fuel cell, for example, requires a water reservoir to collect the water product. However, the need for such a water reservoir must raise the cost of the apparatus and increase its internal space.
There is also known a hot chemical volatilizer as disclosed in JP 2002-281880 A.
In the apparatus disclosed in that publication, a chemical mat impregnated with a chemical is placed on a heater in the apparatus main frame and an electric current is passed from an AC power supply through the heater to heat the same, thereby volatilizing chemical impregnated in the chemical mat into an atmosphere.
JP H02-225403 A discloses a hot chemical volatilizer of liquid chemical bottle type.
This volatilizer, in which a liquid absorbing wick or strip immersed in a liquid chemical within a bottle is heated indirectly by a ring shaped heater element to volatilize the liquid chemical, is a hot type chemical volatilizing devices that can be of service over an extended period of time.
These hot chemical volatilizing devices are generally large in power consumption for heating and, since they typically necessitate an AC power supply to energize the heater, the site of their use is limited to the inside of a house where the power supply is available, presenting the inconvenience that they cannot be used outdoors.
Using a battery instead of such an AC source as the heating power supply, a hot chemical volatilizing device of mat type and a hot chemical volatilizing device of liquid chemical bottle type are disclosed in JP H08-23851 A and JP 2000-103898 A, respectively. Such a device is advantageous in that it has no limitation in the site of it use and can be used outdoors and can be carried readily to anywhere as desired.
The apparatus, however, in which the number of battery cells used is more than small and their duration in service is relatively short, is not economical since they must very often be renewed. Let alone, these cells can hardly be its power supply if the apparatus requires heating at an elevated temperature.
Here again, such cells have their limits in the period of service and when the service period is expired they are replaced with unused ones while being disposed of as in refuse, presenting the problem of refuse disposal.
There is also known an ultrasonic chemical spraying apparatus in which a liquid chemical is ultrasonically atomized and sprayed as disclosed in JP H08-215308 A. This apparatus which unlike an aerosol device requires no spraying agent can be made smaller in size and is expected to a future chemical atomizer.
However, this apparatus generally requires a large power consumption for atomizing or spraying and, especially where a large amount of chemical is to be finely divided or atomized or spraying needs to be continued for an extended period of time, requires a larger number of battery cells used or reduces the cycle of cell exchanges and hence increases the number of cells to be exchanged or the times of cell exchanges. It is thus not only uneconomical but increases the amount of refuse.